permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

The one tree that we successfully planted last year, is an avocado tree, which is in the field, it's looking healthy. These I am mostly just watching how things are being done in the garden. Seedlings have been a challenge to grow because they would be attacked and then die.  This time we planted and held back on mulching using the weeds we are collecting, as they seem to carry different insects that damage our seedlings. We are going to use weeds for the seedlings that look strong and healthy and we will be putting rotting weeds. We are soaking weeds to a rotting point, these ones will have less of the harmful insects. It was not easy to be flexible to not using mulch just after planting,  especially the sandy soil side but I needed to, otherwise not trying different thing would support the idea that growing things the organic way doesn't work. I will use plenty of the rotten weeds, because without organic matter, I don't see our onions growing big and I am not going to start putting fertilizers. We are changing when to put our mulch and what kind of mulch we will put. We are also going to take weeds from the fowl run, this would have been stepped on by the ducks, and I think there won't be a lot of insects as well.

One of the things that have been a challenge has been to keep the raised beds intact. The area has soil that is sandy and every rainy season some of the soil falls off and now the plastic bottles we put right round the beds to hold the soil, are also falling off. I have tried growing mint on the sides but the vertical area would fall during watering, before the root system developed enough to hold the soil together. Today I got an idea, to pin banana tree trunks on the sides, and then grow the mint ontop of the trunk. If this works, my worry on sustaining the raised beds will be gone.

My two nieces are now very serious. They are even waking up at 4am to help each other. The one I am with is now so good and she had nothing to loose if her sister did not understand. Her homework is to explain to her sister concepts in a certain topic and her pass will come when I mark for her sister and she passes. The drive the girls have is now very good. The other one called me at 4 am because her phone's WhatsApp is not working anymore, since it expired and she had it reinstalled. She is now failing to connect at all. One thing I am learning myself, at this age, is to not expect life to sympathize with me. This is what I passed on to her. She has to do everything in her power to find some connection, whether on her phone or from her classmates who have phones. I asked her if she can get me to talk to her maths teacher, for her to get extra help on the topic that she is failing to get. We will figure this out together. What I know is that the exam board will not look at what was available or not in a child's life, all they need is a pass,  and that's what we need to work on.

Since my niece's maths work, the one I am staying with is very impressive now, I am going to switch to teaching English. I am not comfortable or confident teaching it, but as I said, no more excuses, I will read whatever I have to in order to help them.

I have started growing sweet potatoes in between the vetiver grass. If the tubers are not going to grow big, I will have vines for growing when the rains come. Otherwise I am growing these to keep the spaces between the grass clear and to help cover the ground.

The child who left home, went back. He went to his rural home and he is now going to school.

My niece who is in a different province is now really excited about her school work especially maths, and she now gets things in class, even those things we wouldn't have done together.

She used to sleep in maths class and now she doesn't, she can now hear what her teacher says. She said she never used to hear her. She sent me images of her inclass exercises.

Yea! Success!

The parents to my niece whom I am staying with sent some food, a lot of healthy food. I am so excited that they  sent us honey, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and sour milk. It definitely makes the next days so easy and I am thankful.

At the plot I harvested some leaves for mulching. I also tried using maize stalks to cover parts of some spaces in the onion beds. What brought this about is the fact that the soaked grass that I thought would soak for some time was all used in beds and fresh grass was used as well. We had agreed that there is a drum which will always have old soaked grass and we can be topping it up as well as taking some grass from it, but making sure the bottom part gives us rotting grass that will allow us to have continuous access to rich weed tea weekly. The weed tea is a need for now because our soil is too sandy and the weekly boost of nutrients fir the planted onions, from the tea seemed necessary. We cannot make chicken soup because it's expensive at the moment.

I talked to mai Kumbi at length about this idea and she did not say anything against what I had said. I had talked to Kumbi prior and he also seemed to be in agreement. I even explained why for now we should try to avoid fresh grass we would have gotten  just after weeding. There is a grass that dominates beds if it happens to be amongst the weeds and it is difficult to manage. To know that we do not have that room to talk things through if we have different opinions is becoming a consistent problem and I am going to have a chat about this with mai Kumbi. I think I have given our relationship my all and this year is their last year staying at the plot. I wanted to prove that it is possible to exchange services without putting a money label to a service. But I was proven wrong. I had hoped that in this farming project if I bring the land, house, idea and water, the next person would want to bring their natural skills to seeing the project through in a manner that benefited both parties. I carefully selected an industrious person whose skills I do not have and our joint venture almost worked, but it's just taking so much effort to paint the picture of how I would want us to work together. It's blurry to me and I cannot even imagine how confusing it is for mai Kumbi. The time I had invested in her and her family and how far we have come is what is eating me up.

I had a meeting with mai Kumbi and I was telling her she will be moving out end of December because we get along, but do not work together well. It was an emotion filled meeting. I don't know what to do, as things are not always in black and white like I want them to be. We're meeting again on Monday.

I realized that, I do not have the skill to be very clear about how I feel and to articulate the feelings clearly. A lot of what is going on at the plot is on me as a leader. When I need to address an issue that requires me to confront some issues, it is still hard. I can now struggle to talk about things with people involved but it's still a struggle. I am really anxious about my meeting today.

Mai Kumbi did not show for the meeting. She says she wants me to cool down a little so that I don't make rash decisions.

I went to the plot to water the mint I planted at the beds' sides. Some of it, has leaves that have dried, mostly the part I planted last and I could not ask Kumbi or his mother to water, especially, considering the fact that they dont even get what I am trying to do. The place I worked on two weeks back is very promising. The mint was bunched at the base and it was not growing on the vertical sides of the beds. I lifted the plants that were long enough and tucked them beneath the soil I added on the sides. This arrangement is holding and the mint is now following the sides. For the other sides, the mint is too small to show, but there is life. I now need to mulch the edges of the beds heavily. This is my plan to slow down the mint from getting into the beds, the top part where our onions are. If I mulch heavily, I am hoping this will block light from the edges, creating a barrier  between the sides and the top part.

Almost all the onion beds were mulched during the weekend by Mai Kumbi, I guess that's some way of saying they still want to work with me. It's hard really to know what to do. At least she knows I love mulch.

Last night was one eventful evening. It all started when I heard our dogs making weird noises outside. When I opened the door, I saw that they were battling with something, but I was too scared to go to them, and all I could do was to call them to come to me. They acknowledge my presence but they didn't come to me until they had fought the little creature and then they brought it to me.
I was standing at the door and it was around 11pm. I saw a not so pretty looking motionless ball in front of me and I  went to get a  shovel to see if I could get it outside the gate. I was already uncomfortable with going out of the gate by myself, and this was made even worse when ball made a sudden movement when the shovel I was holding hit the floor. For sometime everything froze, and I knew I couldn't leave the dogs with this thing, but I had no idea how to get it out of the yard. All this time I had avoided waking my niece up, but I now needed moral support, so I woke her up and when she came, she was all over the ball, torching her light on it. The ball was a porcupine and when the light was shone on it, it started moving. My niece's presence turned the atmosphere from a scary one to a very funny one. Things had gone spiritual, she started talking to the porcupine like a person saying
"Who send you!, you are going to die for nothing, who send you! Mom what is this thing...since I was born I have never sieen such...".  'She calls me mom.' By this time I was in stitches, laughing, I now had the confidence to carry it outside and when I went to sleep I was not scared.

My niece's presence is a blessing. I don't know how this night would have ended if I were alone. This is actually the second thing this week that made me appreciate her being around. I caught on a flu three days back, and on the first day, I had an excruciating headache and my skin felt so much pain from just the touch of the blankets. My niece cooked for me and just knowing you have someone, makes a big difference. I am a lot better now, and I have been using mint, honey, lemons and guava leaves, all the things we already had.

The lady who digs holes in the field, came to me, asking if she will be getting some work this year. This year I do not have money for this, and when I told her she looked so deflated, though she said very little. She did explain more about her situation. She currently has no job, the two places where she usually gets jobs are closed for the time being. So she is surviving through cutting grass for anyone who might want bedding for their chickens. She needs something to supplement this with.

My plan has always been to create a job for her at our plot, because she has a big heart and is very hardworking, though life seems to never give her a break. Creating a steady job seems like a permanent solution for her. I did reach out to my sister and told her how I cannot give a job to a special lady, this year, whom I think is a "beneficiary" at our plot. During mom's time she always had a job to do at some point during the year and I wanted to continue this tradition, which I had picked up in the past two years, but I am unable to do it this year. My sister is going to  pay her to dig the holes so I am thankful for her kindness.

I am now putting my words and thoughts together for my meeting with mai Kumbi, because we have a bigger responsibility than just our two families, if we run the plot properly. We might not grow to be big philanthropist but we definitely can create work for ourselves and for mai Moyo, the lady I have been taking about.